While there is an acute authorial intelligence informing the transitions between scenes, the steady trot of clipped vignettes comes to seem monotonous and somewhat evasive, a way to move along before anything too hard and hurtful happens.

(Nick Pinkerton, Sight and Sound)

Even as I encourage audiences to cherish Lady Bird for its insights and heart-tugs, I am a bit put off by all the hailing of Gerwig as one of the “freshest female voices of her generation” and a brilliant – as opposed to definitely watchable – entry into the directorial ranks.